


a slow change

by kiyala



Category: Future Card Buddyfight
Genre: Demon Tetsuya, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-06
Updated: 2015-09-06
Packaged: 2018-04-19 09:14:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,558
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4740929
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kiyala/pseuds/kiyala
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He's a prince, he's a demon, he's everything good in Asmodai's life, and he doesn't even remember.</p>
            </blockquote>





	a slow change

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Cthonical (Nellie)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nellie/gifts).



He's a prince, he's a demon, he's everything good in Asmodai's life, and he doesn't even remember. Here, he's little more than a child with none of his magic, none of his experience and it's like a sick joke, it's like Asmodai's personal punishment for not being able to protect him the first time. 

"I like the way you dance," Asmodai says, echoing a conversation from thousands of years ago, except then, it had been, _I like the way you fight_.

Tetsuya grins up at him, and his ears still blush pink when he's pleased with himself, except now, his ears are rounded, not pointed like Asmodai's. His voice is scratchy, still in the process of breaking, and he takes a step back so there's space for both of them in the little square of concrete he's claimed as his dance floor. "Do you want to join in?"

For a moment, Asmodai can't breathe. He thinks of another invitation, with the same words, but Tetsuya's voice was deeper then, and he was taller. Instead of offering Asmodai the floor, he'd been offering a sword. 

"Yeah." His mouth is dry. "I'd love to."

 

* * *

 

Tetsuya is so similar to what he used to be that it's a little painful at times. He has the same easy-going nature, the same smile, the same personality that makes it easy for people to like him. 

He has the same look to his eyes that Asmodai finds himself helpless to, no matter how many years it's been. Asmodai tries to separate everything out anyway, for his own sake. He thinks of _this_ Tetsuya, versus _his_ Tetsuya because sometimes it's hard to tell them apart and it's hard to tell his own feelings apart.

He's living in the human world and that means that he's playing by human rules. This Tetsuya is a human boy and nothing more. The only thing demonic about him is Asmodai's presence. This Tetsuya isn't his, not the way Asmodai wants. It's easy to take care of him, it's easy to like him, and it'll be easy to maintain some distance from him. He just needs to try. 

 

* * *

 

Sometimes, Asmodai can be a fucking idiot who lies to himself too much for his own good.

 

* * *

 

He wakes up and jolts upright because he smells Tetsuya. _His_ Tetsuya, demonic and familiar and it feels, for a moment, like he's home. He gets up and follows the smell, freezing in his tracks when he ends up standing in Tetsuya's doorway.

"Asmodai?" he blinks blearily, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. "Is everything okay?" 

Nothing is okay. Asmodai wants to sag against the doorframe because there is no difference between _this_ Tetsuya and _his_ Tetsuya. They're one and the same and no amount of distance is going to change that. 

He takes a deep breath, and the air still smells like demon royalty. Like the one person in the entire world that Asmodai has always cared for more than himself. 

"Yeah," he says with a quiet laugh. He walks into the room and ruffles Tetsuya's blond hair affectionately. "Everything's fine. Go back to sleep."

Tetsuya does, with both his arms wrapped around one of Asmodai's. His grip is tight and Asmodai sighs to himself, carefully settling down and curling himself around Tetsuya's small, delicate body. 

 

* * *

 

"Tell me about Magic World," Tetsuya says, sprawled across Asmodai's lap comfortably.

"What do you want to know?" Asmodai asks, ignoring the way his stomach's doing flips, caught somewhere between hope and fear that Tetsuya's starting to remember.

"Anything," Tetsuya shrugs, oblivious to the way Asmodai's mind is racing. "I have no idea what it's like. You're a demon lord, right? What's that like?"

"Well." Asmodai chews on his lip, choosing his words carefully. "Kind of like being a knight, I guess."

"A knight?" Tetsuya asks, blinking up at him. "You? That's so cool! Does that mean there's a demon king that you fight for?"

"Used to be," Asmodai forces the words out with a small smile. "There's no real concept of kings and knights in Magic World any more."

"Really?" Tetsuya frowns. "What happened?"

Uprisings. Wars. Death. The last remnant of the royal bloodline is lounging in Asmodai's lap without a care in the world, without a clue.

"Time passes," Asmodai murmurs. "Things change, right? Things always change."

 

* * *

 

The bananas are—

Well. They're a surprise. 

But, Asmodai supposes, hiding a smile behind his hand as he watches Tetsuya stare at himself in the mirror and cry, _what are those?_ —Tetsuya's always liked bananas. 

 

* * *

 

"Asmodai?" Tetsuya asks, sitting up, in the middle of the night. 

They're sleeping in the same bed. They have been, for a while. Tetsuya is clingy and Asmodai's stopped pretending that he isn't just as bad. 

"What's up?" Asmodai sits up too, rubbing soothing circles into Tetsuya's back.

"I had a dream," Tetsuya says, so quietly that Asmodai can barely hear him. "You were in it."

"Yeah?"

"I was…" Tetsuya clears his throat. "I was me, but I wasn't _me_. I know that doesn't make sense, but…"

Asmodai doesn't reply, his hand going still. 

"I just got this feeling," Tetsuya continues nervously. "Like I've known you my entire life." 

"Feels that way," Asmodai murmurs.

Tetsuya laughs, but it's a fragile sound. He lies back down, pressing himself into the curve of Asmodai's body. 

"It was just a dream. Sorry for waking you up."

Asmodai strokes his fingers through Tetsuya's hair, and doesn't sleep.

 

* * *

 

"Can I kiss you?"

Asmodai abruptly stops what he's doing, to look over at Tetsuya. They're building a deck together and right now, Tetsuya isn't looking at him. He's just picking at the hem of his hoodie, not even looking at the cards in front of him. He bites his lip, like the words were never meant to make it out of his mouth, and Asmodai sighs quietly. 

Tetsuya is thirteen. He smells like demon royalty and the dreams have started happening more regularly, even if he doesn't always tell Asmodai about them. But he's still mostly human. For all Asmodai knows, that's how he'll stay. 

"No, Tetsuya," he says gently, feeling guilty for the disappointment he can see in Tetsuya's eyes. "You can't."

 

* * *

 

Tetsuya grows. He doesn't ask to kiss Asmodai again, and he's just as loud and friendly as always, but there's something about him that changes. He wakes up in the middle of the night more often, gasping and trying not to wake Asmodai, not realising that he already has. He's slow to get back to sleep and he's always a little quieter in the mornings, pensive, so lost in his own thoughts that he barely hears Asmodai talking to him.

The smell of demon gets stronger and, not for the first time, Asmodai wonders if this is his doing. Perhaps it's his magic that's gotten into Tetsuya to change him. His own selfish desire to have what he once did. 

But then Tetsuya is fifteen and bites his lip over breakfast, crying out in surprise as it starts to bleed. Asmodai takes his chin into a hand and tilts it up. Where there used to be a human tooth, Tetsuya now has a fang.

"What's happening?" Tetsuya asks quietly, but there's a look in his eyes that says he already knows. 

"Are you still having those dreams?" Asmodai asks, and he doesn't need to specify. Tetsuya nods as best as he can, with his chin still in Asmodai's hand. 

"How do you feel, when you're in them?"

Tetsuya holds Asmodai's gaze and is silent for a moment in thought, before he finally says, "I've always been myself in them, haven't I?"

 

* * *

 

"You used to be my knight," Tetsuya says, two and a half years after asking to kiss Asmodai. 

It's morning and Asmodai is tired. Tetsuya woke up shaking in the middle of the night, mumbling under his breath, still caught halfway between his dream and consciousness. He'd fallen asleep right after, but Asmodai hasn't been able to close his eyes since. He's been waiting for this, dreading it, anticipating it. 

"Yeah."

"My knight and my friend and," Tetsuya pauses. "More than that."

Tetsuya has grown a lot recently. He's taller and he's lean and muscled from all the dancing. Nobody comments on his fangs, or the way his ears have started growing into points. Either everyone around Tetsuya recognises this as his natural state, or he's unconsciously using a glamour to hide it from everyone but Asmodai.

"Yeah," Asmodai says again, clearing his throat. "I was."

"You were my knight and…"

"And you were my prince," Asmodai finishes for him, filling the gaps that he's just skirted around for the past few years. "And I did everything I could for you but that still wasn't enough. I watched you die. But then I came to the human world and…"

"Here I was," Tetsuya picks up, like they're tag-teaming. "Me, but not me."

"You've always been Tetsuya." 

"Who am I?" Tetsuya asks him. "What am I?"

"You're Tetsuya. The future king of Magic World. Part human, mostly demon, I think. You're the one person who matters most to me, across any world. I'm not going to lose you again." 

They reach for each other, hands tightly clasped. 

"Can I kiss you, Asmodai?" Tetsuya asks, looking right at him this time.

Asmodai smiles, and pulls him close.


End file.
